1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cap mechanism, a drawing device, and a method of drawing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various technologies have been developed for use in conventional drawing devices for drawing nail designs on fingernails.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-194838 discloses a nail art device for drawing nail designs on the fingernails that includes a holder for locking the finger in place.
This nail art device utilizes an inkjet printer to print nail designs on the fingernails.
In this type of device, using a pen plotter or the like makes it possible to draw using inks that contain glitter, which have a large particle size and are difficult to use as inkjet inks. However, in consideration of safety of use on the human body, it is preferable that any inks filled into the liquid material applicator (pen) used in a pen plotter be water-soluble. With these types of inks, if the tip of the pen is not covered when the pen is not in use, the ink on the tip of the pen tends to dry and quickly render the pen unusable.
In conventional pens, pushing a cap onto the pen with a force of approximately 2 kgf attaches the cap to the pen in a locked state sufficient to prevent drying of the pen tip.
However, to avoid an increase in the overall size of the device, the motors used in the mechanism that moves the pen must be small. This makes it difficult to press a cap onto the pen with sufficient force.
To solve this problem, the device configuration illustrated in FIGS. 6A and 6B includes a cap 100 that can house a pen tip 33 of a pen 30. As illustrated in FIG. 6A, when the pen 30 is not in use, the pen 30 is moved to the cap 100. Then, as illustrated in FIG. 6B, the pen 30 is simply placed on the cap 100 to insert the pen tip 33 into the cap 100.
In this case, although the pen tip 33 is covered by the cap 100, the pen 30 is simply resting on the cap 100 under the weight of the pen 30 itself. Therefore, the strength of the resulting seal is poor, and only a limited anti-drying effect is achieved.
The present invention was made in view of the abovementioned problems and aims to provide a cap mechanism, a drawing device, and a method of drawing that make it possible to achieve an exceptional anti-drying effect for the pen tip while minimizing any increases in the overall size of the device.